A plan to save Culham European school, near Oxford, from closure and turn it into a multilingual academy is being jeopardised by a funding row between the European Commission and the UK government.

The only one of the 14 European schools in the UK, Culham was founded in 1975 to provide an education for the children of scientists working at the nearby EU nuclear research programme.

The 900 students have a multilingual education that begins in nursery school and ends at the age of 18 with the students leaving fluent in at least two languages.

The school was due to start closing in September 2010 after the winding down of the research programme.

Last week, at a meeting in Brussels, the Commission voted to save the school by agreeing in principle with the UK government's proposals to turn it into a "flagship language school".

Culham, it was hoped, could "help transform the current UK provision and achievements in European languages", as it would "be unique in the state system with its focus on language teaching and learning throughout the school from nursery to sixth form".

But negotiations with the UK government over the timetable for the proposed handover have now become bogged down. The Commission is also concerned with the proposed transfer of the £34m they had planned to spend on the school during its seven-year closing period.

Without this funding in place the UK government may be unwilling to the meet the running costs of the school and the European Baccalaureate which could amount to as much as £7m a year.

Parents say they feel "betrayed" by the Commission's apparent change of position. Commission officials said they were unable to comment. Although UK officials are working on an alternative plan, it is feared that time consuming negotiations might put at risk a seamless transition to the new school in less than two years time, and hit parents' confidence in the future of the school.

A spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families said: "The minister is keen to use Culham in the region and nationally as a model for modern foreign language education through teaching subjects in other languages."

Parents of children at Culham have founded a charity, The English Trust for European Education (ETEE), to not only fight for the school's future, but also to raise the profile of multilingual education.

Maurizio Fantato, the vice-chair of ETEE, said: "The school is worth the fight as it is one of the most visionary educational concepts of the 20th century, yet one which is little known outside the narrow confines of schools belonging to this system."